


Through the Breaking Cracks in Space

by artemistheacegoddess



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, M/M, Spoilers for Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Spoilers for Episode: e160 The Eye Opens (The Magnus Archives), basically the birds come to the tma world during stolen century, fuck jonah magnus, i just want jon to be happy is that too much to ask for, i love lucretia, i'll add more as they're applicable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:39:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24775507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemistheacegoddess/pseuds/artemistheacegoddess
Summary: During the Stolen Century, the crew of the Starblaster finds themselves in a strange world ruled by fear. Meanwhile, the Archives crew is still recovering from the attack of Jane Prentiss, and Elias is scheming.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans & Magnus Burnsides & Davenport & Merle Highchurch & Lucretia & Lup & Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone), Martin Blackwood & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Director | Lucretia/Lup, also the lupcretia is one-sided, jonmartin (eventually not yet though)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	1. An Unexpected Change of Plans

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've had for a while and I've finally written it out. I hope you like it! Thanks to The Hell Archives discord server for helping me beta!

Elias was doing paperwork when it began. His entire archival staff had been incapacitated due to supernatural worms, which while it had been planned, meant a lot more paperwork than expected. He sighed, rubbing his temples. When he remade the world in his image, there certainly wouldn't be any more tedious paperwork. At least not for him. Maybe the apocalypse would hold only paperwork for Tim? That sounded delightfully evil. His train of thought was interrupted by a little brain notification from the Eye telling him that a whole spaceship had just landed in front of the Institute. Elias was suddenly filled with questions and displeasure. Why hadn't the Eye told him sooner? Was the spaceship Fairchild’s? If so, why was it in front of the Institute??? He quickly understood, however, that this was not the Vast, it was something entirely unexpected, and therefore unwanted. He set out for the exit with a deep frown.

Lucretia gasped in the sudden light of the Starblaster, as she awoke again after her death in the last cycle. As her senses returned to her, she remembered. She remembered the death of her world. She remembered their confusion and grief. She remembered cycle after cycle of sadness and death and pain and she couldn’t keep going. There was too much, and she couldn’t help protect them. She sank to the floor, tears welling in her eyes. She remembered how the planet last cycle had been hostile, and Merle had died in the first encounter. How Lup had been a few weeks later, after she stayed a second too long trying to blow up some goons. After that was Magnus, he had been ambushed. Then Barry, on an excursion to try and find the Light. Taako, her, and Davenport had almost survived to the end, but in the final month, they forgot to refresh their disguise spell. Davenport barely survived. Who was she to be here? She couldn’t do anything. As she sat there helplessness washing over her, she felt the tell-tale warm embrace of Lup surround her.  
“I missed you, ‘Cresh”, she whispered into her ear.  
Lucretia’s eyes filled with tears, she smiled and squeezed Lup back. Slowly, one by one, the rest of the IPRE crew joined their hug, and under their crushing, familiar embrace she remembered that even through all the awful things she saw and knew, that her family would always be there for her. She remembered all the things she’d learned to help protect her family. She remembered that there was hope and joy and life. And as the ship descended into the unknown world below them, the family on the ship braced themselves for another year of hardship.

Jon wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d been in front of his computer. He’d managed to sneak it out of the Institute as he left, because no matter what Elias said he was going to do some research. However, now it was 1 A.M. and he was still internet-stalking his coworkers. It was all surprisingly ordinary for possible murderers. Sasha’s socials had all been sort of blank, almost bland compared to the woman he knew. Martin had very little social media presence, except for a very active cottagecore aesthetic/poetry account which yielded very little interesting information. Tim was, of course, on every possible site, and very active too. Jon had even, much to his dismay, found Tim’s Tinder account. It was as bad as it sounded. It was all so frustratingly normal. He sighed, and closed his laptop. He hadn’t eaten all day, and was only now realizing how hungry he was. He moved toward his pantry, only to feel his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled his phone out, only to see an email from Elias to all the archival staff. He sighed even deeper, something had happened and Elias wanted them all to come to the Institute as soon as possible. The details had not been revealed, but Elias had specified that he would tell them as soon as they got there. He began to move to leave immediately before remembering it was 1 in the morning and he hadn’t slept. As much as he wanted to know what was happening, his body was going to collapse soon and he would rather that happened somewhere soft. 

As they all stepped off their ship, Taako stood next to Lup near the back of the little procession. He was schooling his face into practiced boredom, but he was really quite nervous. The last world had been really terrible for all of them, and they were all on edge. Taako, especially, was worried, because last year he had to spend 6 months without his sister. Every year, he told himself he was used to it, and every time she died he knew he wasn’t. She was his heart, and every day without her, was a day he wasn’t himself. Lup looked over at him with a small smile.  
“Taako, you’re nervous”  
He bit his lip, and didn’t respond.  
“Koko, I’m fine”, she reassured him, taking his hand.  
He sighed, and nodded, “I guess we should go meet this world, huh”  
She laughed, and they followed the rest of the crew.  
In front of them was a large building, of gothic structure, and in front of it was a short man. He was wearing a dark green suit that looked rather old fashioned. His graying hair was slicked back, and he wore a single golden eye-shaped earring. His vivid green eyes seemed to look at them, deeper than they could comprehend. Lup studied the man for a moment before looking back at Taako. They gave each other a look that translated to approximately, Oh he looks fun. Davenport approached him and held out a hand.  
“Hello, sir! Are you the leader of this world?”  
The man smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, “Hello, Captain. I suppose you could say that, although I try to stay humble. My name is Elias Bouchard.”  
“Mr. Bouchard. We are a crew of scientists-“ Davenport started, before Elias cut him off.  
“Ah, I already know who you are Captain Davenport”  
Davenport’s face rapidly shifted from relieved to shocked to confused. Taako would have thought it was funny was he not sure his face was doing the same.  
Elias continued, “I know all about your crew and your mission. In fact, you could say, I know everything”  
Davenport’s face shifted to grim understanding, “I see. Well Mr. Bouchard, you wouldn’t happen to have a place we could come during the day to get to know your planet, would you?”  
Elias simply nodded, “You may visit this building, The Magnus Institute. The Archives may be specifically helpful to your mission.”  
Davenport stared at Elias before nodding in return, and turning around.  
Taako and Lup exchanged raised eyebrows and followed their captain back onto the ship.  
Inside the ship, the family wordlessly gathered on the deck for their usual meeting. Taako sat in his seat, and immediately propped his feet up on the table.  
“So we all agree that this Elias guy is a total bitch, right?”  
Davenport gave an amused sigh, “I refuse to condone calling the leader of this world a ‘bitch’, but he certainly seems a bit… manipulative.”  
“We need his help, but I certainly don’t like it,” Barry spoke up.  
“I mean, his personality is bleugh, but did you see hair, and his fancy suit”, Merle said, staring starry-eyed towards the building Elias had called The Magnus Institute.  
The entire crew immediately erupted into sounds of disgust.  
“He’s clearly a disgusting weaselly old man, is that really your type Merle?!?”,Lup exclaimed, despite already knowing the answer. In response, Merle just waggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

Elias Knew when the Archivist began to head up to his office. He had known Jon would be first, and he had been right, as always. By the time, the man entered, Elias was perfectly poised and ready, not that he ever wasn’t.  
“Ah, hello Jon. Come in, I wanted to talk to you.”  
“Yes, Elias, what did you need? I’m ready to come back to work if you need me”, Jon said, a bit too eagerly.  
“Yes, that is part of why I wanted to talk to you, but the main reason is that… well, we have some visitors.”


	2. hey, um, why can't we fight ghosts??

Jon could not get any work done with these newcomers. It wasn’t that they were causing disturbances, if anything a few of them were trying to help their work. It was more that he couldn’t trust any of them as far as he could throw them, and he was rather weak. He was already having enough problems not being able to trust the coworkers he had, what with each of them being a possible murderer. Now he had 7 new variables and it made everything so much worse. He could hear one of them (one of twins, maybe?) and Tim laughing hysterically. He sighed, it was going to be a long week. Hopefully, later this week he could slip down into the tunnels to investigate and get away from all these people. Some of them would probably try to be his friend. The thought made his face twist in disgust. He barely tolerated his assistants most days. He tried to massage his temples, only to painfully remember that his worm scars were still painful.   
Davenport had been worried that everyone in this Institute would be like Elias, but he was pleasantly surprised. They had been directed to the Archives by a lovely older woman named Rosie, and upon entering, found themselves facing a young man with a very kind face. He had offered to make them all tea, and introduced himself as Martin Blackwood. After he brought them their tea, he brought them to sit in a small breakroom.  
“Jon’s already in his office, so we probably shouldn’t bother him, but Tim and Sasha will be here soon.”  
Taako, who was currently sitting upside down in a chair, with an incredibly headache inducing outfit on, spoke up, “So, do you guys, like fight ghosts or what?”  
“Oh! Um, no. We just archive the statements, sorry, if you were, um, hoping to fight ghosts”, Martin stuttered out.  
“Huh, seems boring”, Taako proclaimed and returned to whispering to Lup.  
Martin seemed to sort of wither in response, so Davenport walked across the room to him.  
“Martin, right?”  
Martin nodded, and turned to face him.  
“That’s Taako. I know he’s a bit abrasive, but he really doesn’t mean it.”  
“How do you know? He seemed pretty serious to me…”, Martin asked, immediately wincing at some perceived wrong.   
Davenport sighed, “Son, I’ve known him for over 70 years, if I don’t know when he’s joking by now, I’m fucked.”  
Martin took a moment to absorb the knowledge that apparently these two had known each other for longer than twice his lifetime, but eventually nodded.  
“Ok, I- thank you, sir”  
Davenport almost laughed at the long dropped formality , “Martin, I haven’t been called sir in decades. Call me Davenport.” 

Tim had heard from Jon, in a very curt text, that they were having visitors in the Archives. He, however, was not prepared to see one of the strangest groups of people he’d ever seen in the breakroom. There were two extravagant (and attractive) twins, one of whom was sitting upside down, a man in a lab coat talking to the other twin, a man with the bushiest sideburns he’d ever seen and a axe strapped to his back, a very short older man with flowers in his long beard who appeared to be flirting with the potted plants, a younger woman furiously writing with both hands into a notebook, and a man in a captain’s uniform talking to Martin.   
“Huh”, was all he could say as he stood in the doorway, dumbstruck.  
The twin sitting upside down called up, “Hey, are you Tim or Sasha or just some rando off the street?”  
“I’m Tim”, he winked at the end to try and make himself seem less surprised at both these strangers, and at the man’s apparent elf ears.  
The elf (?) didn’t buy it, and flipped right side up, “I’m Taako”  
At this point Tim couldn’t contain his spluttering laughter. Taako looked vaguely offended.  
“Your- sorry, your name is Taako like the food?”  
“I guess? In my world we don’t have any food called Taako, though.”  
“Ok my dude, I am taking you out for tacos later.”, Tim said trying to play off the fact that Taako had just implied he was from another world.  
At this point, Taako’s twin turned around from her conversation with the other man.   
“Taako, are you going to tour this world’s food without me”  
“You’re welcome to come if you want”, Tim added  
“First off, I’m Lup and thanks for the invite! Second, You couldn’t stop me and my brother if you wanted to,” she said with a smile.  
Tim’s eyes widened, and a grin spread over his face.  
“Oh, I like you! We’re gonna be friends Lup, I can already tell.”  
She turned to her brother, and they seemed to share a conversation in their eyes, then they both turned back to him.  
“We like you too”, they said in unison before bursting into laughter.   
Tim quickly joined them, realizing this was the first time he’d really relaxed since Prentiss attacked. It felt good. It reminded him of the days when he and Sasha would stay up for hours watching movies and throwing popcorn at each other. 

John thought this new plane was strange. Many other planes had had powerful entities and gods. He had consumed them all. This plane had something different though. No traditional gods like Istus or the Raven Queen. Instead, there were these powerful entities that were disturbingly similar to himself. Things just outside this plane, but able to influence it all the same. This was surprising and all in all probably bad. He needed to learn more about these entities, he needed to know if he could consume them as well. He sighed into the inky blackness and felt it echo around him a million times. He thought about the room he and Merle met in. The old man had died rather quickly last cycle and they'd never gotten to talk. They wanted to kill him again. No, he just wanted to talk to him. He was beginning to think they were friends. Which was bad- no it was fine. They- he was fine. What was happening to him? He was starting to feel powerless again.   
Lucretia knew in theory what the assistants did down here, but she knew she’d need more direction in order to help, so she headed for the door marked ‘Head Archivist’. Upon her knock, she heard the rapid shuffling of papers and then the door opened to the sight of a very tired man with dark skin and long hair streaked with grey. His face was covered in circular wounds still healing and he had a pair of rectangular green glasses perched on his nose. Behind him was a room stuffed with filing boxes and paper and a small desk piled high with paper, tape recorders, and mugs.  
He raised an eyebrow, “Er, did you need something?”  
Lucretia brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, “I am the journal-keeper for my crew, and so I thought I might be able to help you down here.”  
He nodded and gestured for her to enter, “I am Jonathan Sims, and I assume you are Lucretia?”  
Lucretia nodded, “So, Elias did tell you about us? The others didn’t seem to know anything other than that we were coming”  
Jon looked a bit uncomfortable, “I was going to tell them more, but well… I lost track of time and I didn’t realize it was already Monday until a few minutes ago.”  
Lucretia gave him a small smile, “I do the same thing all the time.”  
“Right. Well, if you could start by taking a statement and doing some research at one of the extra desks. Just search up any participants or companies and the like.”  
Lucretia nodded, and as she left she heard Jon start up one of those tape recorders. She was just out of earshot after he said, “Supplemental…”

Lup had just left to talk to Tim when Barry saw the woman enter the room. Sasha, he assumed, was a very ordinary woman, very unremarkable in every way. He walked up to her as she put her purse down.  
“Ah, you’re Sasha, right?”  
She turned towards him and smiled, and Barry didn’t want to be rude, but there was something off about her smile… he shook himself out as she responded,   
“ Yes! Are you one of our visitors?”  
“Yeah, I’m Barry, we’ll be here for a while.”  
“Well I hope you will have a great time! Let me know if you need anything, but I need to get to work”  
As she walked off Barry noticed something off about the way she looked as she walked away. She seemed shaky around the edges, like the air on a hot summer day. It was like someone had put a very bad illusion spell over the real image of Sasha. If he really focused he could tell that her voice had had an odd quality to it as well, as if someone was writing over a record. You couldn't hear what was underneath the new recording but you knew it was there. He sighed, they’d had a very long few days since they had landed, and he was probably just tired.  
Jon, the Head Archivist, had gathered everyone because, apparently, he had forgotten to tell his coworkers about them. Merle thought that was pretty irresponsible of him, but he wasn’t about to tell the man how to do his job.  
“Ahem, well, uh, Time, Sasha, Martin, these are our visitors. They’re from another universe, apparently. And they’re looking for something called the Light of Creation. We will help them find it, and they will help us in the archives.”  
Tim and Sasha were clearly quite shocked, although Martin seemed a little less so, but before they could respond, Elias Bouchard walked into the room. Merle immediately sat up straight, and beside him he could see Barry shake his head in disappointment.  
“Ah, I see you just finished briefing your team, Jon”, Elias said with no small amount of derision in his voice.  
Jon was about to respond, but Merle piped up suggestively, “I bet you’d love to brief me on our relationship, in your bed”   
Elias turned beet red, and stuttered out something about spreadsheets, before turning and all but running out of the archives.  
Tim grinned wickedly, “Man, we’ve never gotten him to leave that fast! I like you guys”  
“I was being genuine”, Merle pouted and Davenport patted his back reassuringly.  
Tim looked absolutely disgusted, and turned away to talk to Sasha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes im awful at dialogue please help,,, luckily this chapter is probably one of the most dialogue intensive. seriously why cant we as people forgo speaking aloud and simply communicate through vague gestures and introspective thoughts. also im changing the schedule to likely once every 2 weeks, but dont expect consistency

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to update this about once a week, but that may slow down as tight now I have about half a chapter of backlog. Also this fic will take place over the one year in which the IPRE crew is there, but because I want everyone to be happy I am smushing the events of s2 and s3 of tma together into one year just for plot reasons. Also, the chapters should get longer as more stuff happens!


End file.
